Internet audiences or internet users

One to one communication
Key examples: telephone, letters, text messaging 

This is the direct communication between one person and another. The participants are both the producers and the consumers of the content, this essentially is a lot more personal and private to the specified parties. A lot of online communication is often one to one.

Many to many communication
Key examples: forums, chatrooms

This is the communication of large groups of people and other large groups of people. It is essentially a very open discussion and there are many people involved which are generally the producers and consumers of the content.

One to many communication 
Key examples: newspapers, magazine, books, television, films, radio

This is the communication of a producer, which doesn't necessarily have to be a singular person but could be an institution which creates content to be consumed by other audiences and people.

Pareto's Law

This is a law theorised by Lin and Webster in 2002 which states that "a minority of media producers always serve a majority of consumers." 

A most notable example of this would be that only 10 publishing companies publish over 60% of books ever read. This reinforces the idea that a small quantity of producers create content that is consumed by a huge amount of audiences (one to many).

Percentage of UK searches on the internet use Google: 88.58%

The law doesn't just fit into traditional media but reinforces when it comes to digital media as according to Lin and Webster, the top 5% of all websites accounted for almost 75% of user volume. Furthermore, Morris and Ogan's theory in 1996 states how traditional media generally has one type of method to communicate between the producer and consumer, the internet contrasts in this matter as it has many different methods for the communication.

What is the difference between an internet user and a television viewer?  Are you more active online?  Justify your answer

A television viewer is a consumer which has the content communicated through the process of one to many. The viewer is essentially one of a mass group of people that are consuming the same content by the same producer. However an internet user is consuming content through the communication of many to many, this is due to the fact that the internet user is consuming multiple types of content  by many different producers all at once. It could be argued that the internet user essentially has a lot more control and could be a bit more learned than a television user, this could be due to the fact that due to the one to many communication, you are only ever receiving one perspective or type of content, however with the many to many communication, the user is consuming a lot more perspectives and types of content which could lead to an increase in knowledge. This is not to say that the television user is any less knowledgeable, as the producer of the one to many communication has to target a large audience of consumers, it must be absolutely certain that the content is accurate to every degree, where as the many to many communication and the different perspectives could result in less facts but more opinions which could create false information.

Audience research

How much you have spent on books this year?
About £10 maximum
The students in the video spent hundreds of dollars on books just for the year. That's for books alone not including the money for the school and class.

How many books you have read this year?
I have read 4-5 books this entire year.
My answer was actually less than the one in the video where they said they would read 8 books a year.

How many web pages you have read this year?
There's way too many to count. I'm online pretty much all the time browsing the internet, so it would most likely be in the hundreds.
The webpages number for the student in the video was a lot more than mine, in the amount of 2,300.

How many Facebook profiles you have read this year?
I don't actually use Facebook a lot now a days especially this past year. So it would probably be about 10 profiles.
The answer for this a lot more than mine, they said 1,281 Facebook profiles which they have viewed.

How much TV you watch each day?
The only television I actually watch is all online such as through Netflix or other on-demand online websites. Even when it is online this is very limited to an hour or two a day, maybe less.
Both mine and the students answers were similar, with theirs being 1 and a half hours per day. However, my frequency is a lot less because I would watch TV for an hour or two in the space of 1-2 days.

How long you’re online for each day?
I'm online pretty much all day straight after school until I go to sleep, so it would be about 6-7 hours. This is usually the normal routine unless I do something different such as go out for the day.
It is interesting to note that their answer was a lot less than mine, nearly half as they spent 3 and a half hours online a day.

How many hours of music you listen to each day?
I'm pretty much always listening to music in the background so about 7-8 hours.
Again, their answer was a lot less with the students listening to music at least 2 and a half hours a day.

How long you’re on your mobile phone every day?

I try not to use my phone as often, but every day it would probably be in the range of 10-12 hours.
This is again a lot less than my own answer as they would spend 2 hours on their phone a day which is evident that mine is a lot more.

Social media and surveillance

The article begins by talking about the different aspects of everyone's life and how there are different types of small "life spheres" that affect the way we essentially behave. These "life spheres" could be family life, friend life, school life. Each different type of sphere has different type of behaviour depending on people and the article essentially talks about how everyone is a type of actor that changes their behaviour and persona as we switch between these "life spheres". The article then focuses a lot more on social media and digital surveillance on society. It talks about how large companies such as Facebook or Google are actually monitoring their users on a day to day basis and essentially use this as a way to gain profit, for example, Google could track a user's behaviour in order to target specific adverts towards their tastes at these users which would increase their profit through efficiency. The article finally talks about government surveillance by talking about a recent and very controversial case of the whistle-blower Edward Snowden who essentially leaked confidential information about the government which the government considered treason. The article focuses on the idea of how the government argues that their surveillance is for the greater good of it's populace and society as they would be paying a small price of privacy for the freedom of everyone else, but this can be argued that we are essentially giving up our own personal freedom which is wrong.

In my own personal opinion I'm not too bothered with people or large companies tracking me online. This is because a lot of the information that I put up online is something that I have no trouble with people knowing. I willingly put up information that I would be happy to let people know because it doesn't affect me negatively if someone else were to have it. If there are somethings that I don't want people to know, I wouldn't put it up. I think it is the classic saying of "you have nothing to hide, if you have nothing to fear". I think this is a small price to pay because the advantages of an open source and interconnected world through the internet outweigh the disadvantages. The internet and advanced technology has increased society in different ways and rapidly created new opportunities. However, it can be argued that this type of attitude can be abused by the government or any other person until people's freedom is at risk, but I think that if it were ever to come to that then people would rise up against the totalitarian dictatorships. 

Introduction to NDM: reading and blog task

Article summaries
The first article was focused on the idea how both school life and home life for students are completely different. This was also done and shown through a series of research and studying by paying close attention to how students use media and technology. This was then used to see how the students interacted in school, with their class mates and at home. The article also aims to show some faults in the the school system as schools are interested more in teaching about popular culture rather than important cultural or social issues and the effects of the media. This is a very crucial aspect to teaching and essentially affects students in many different ways, both positive and negative.

The second article is about the live video streaming app called Periscope and discusses it's advantages as well as it's disadvantages.The article begins by explaining what the app actually is and it's features. The article then talks about one of the main aspects of the app that would be considered controversial. Firstly, the article talks about how the app creates various issues for privacy of the people streaming as the viewers are able to instantly find out personal information of the streamers in real time which could be problematic. Also, it creates an issue for piracy as many streamers would begin to stream things such as films, TV shows or music gigs live to their viewers who would be able to watch everything for free. Finally, the article ends with the potential of the app and how it can be used for various good things such as in a lesson a student who is sick could watch the class in real time from home.

A2 A* Exam essay
I personally think that the A2 A* exam essay is very successful due to the fact that it creates a very fluent debate consistently throughout the essay by both the pros and cons for the topic but most importantly talking about their own opinions or perspective which are then backed by theories. This effectively creates an argumentative and evaluative tone for the entire of the essay which easily help it to get the top marks.

How has digital media changed your life in the last 5 years?
It's very clear that in the space of half a decade, technology and digital media has advanced very rapidly to the extent that social networking sites and platforms have risen and fallen. Five years ago, I would probably have been wasting my time chatting online with my friends over MSN or getting super excited at the thought of someone actually bothering to send me an email. However, what was clear was that at the time the best way to communicate was with the peers that you knew in real life and by sharing your personal email address in order to do so. Through the rapid succession of digital media, it is a lot more easier to make new friends all over the world due to an increase in inter connectivity across the globe. Of course this does come with its disadvantages, such as catfishing or grooming or most commonly cyberbullying. This does mean however that a lot of people are more educated in the perspectives of other people which help young people to create opinions and essentially become more educated within themselves. 

I also think that the rapid succession of digital media has had a huge impact on the way media is consumed on a daily basis amongst young people. New apps are constantly being made every day and these are all coming up with new and creative ways to get the youth hooked into their own app. Who would have thought in 2011 that in just 5 years, teenagers will communicate mostly through 140 characters or less and most importantly through pictures such as snaps or emojis. This essentially could be argued that the youth has evidently become less and less intelligent but it can also be argued that this has made socialising a lot more fast paced which would explain why it has left many adults unable to keep up and confused at the sight of a microwave. Media such as films or TV shows are also consumed differently and a lot more through the use of on demand services such as Netflix which give the users a lot more control and power over what to watch and when to watch it.

Due to these rapid changes not many people know what the future of digital media actually looks like. Five years ago I was procrastinating and wasting time on social media, five years have passed and I still am. One thing I can be certain about is that five years from now I'll still be procrastinating and wasting my time.